Last Monday a staff member found a bedbug at her workstation. Its a call center so everyone has a station separeted by partitions. We called an exterminator and closed down the entire department and it was treated and supposed to last 30 days. Today the same employee just brought me a LIVE bed bug (my mother had them 2 years ago so I KNOW it was a bedbugger!) that she just found at her station. There are 3 coworkers that have had bed bugs and one that is still battling getting rid of them. I know for a fact that 3 people had them and the one who is still battling them told me herself because I am her supervisor and she had to call out of work due to the problem. Do we have a serious problem only finding two? Is the coworker that currently still has them bringing them in? What do I tell the other coworkers?Those of us that DONT have them, Can we get them from work and bring them to our own home?

Bed bugs are a pest of exposure. If you're exposed to them, and you don't take certain precautions, you can spread an infestation from one place to another.

If you haven't yet taken a look at the FAQs on the main site, I would do so, as there's some good information there about how to prevent accidentally taking a hitch hiking bed bug from one place to another:

Many of the posts linked to from there are more focused on staying at hotels/homes with bed bugs and not taking them home with you, but the general rules in those protocols would be a wise thing to follow until you're sure that your workplace is bed bug free--both after professional pest control treatment and in terms of all your coworkers having solved their bed bug problems at home so as to avoid reinfesting the workplace.

From David Cain who for some reason can't post in this thread but is one of the foremost BB authorities in the UK......

Hi,

It may also be that the source to the office is one of the following:

* Something common to the way they all come to work
* Someone else in the office who does not respond to bites and is brining them in
* Somewhere else in the building where they are being picked up whole in the building

The bottom line is that the only long term solution is education within the work place. I would suggest that you chat with HR about having a staff briefing on bed bugs as a common problem and one that the company want to avoid. Thus if all staff check at home then you can even rule out non bite responders bringing them to work.

You can also help all the staff avoid them while on holiday and thus avoid bringing them home or on to work.

I appreciate that management may not want to tackle this subject but it is one that companies are increasingly having to face. The way to explain it to them is that avoidance is the best solution and that can only come through awareness and education.

If your organisation are serious about communicating the issue I am happy to spend a few hours re-working the information sheets I have so that you have information to share with staff and sheets for notice boards. They can easily look at it that every case they help avoid is less time that people need of work, less workplace stress and higher staff productivity.

Yes it is possible that you may get them from work and carry them home which is why knowing what to look for at home is essential knowledge for everyone. We are increasingly hearing of infected work locations and it would be nice to see proactive management.

Good luck.

David Cain
Bed Bugs Limited

PS Produced with help from spideyjg as I could not get the whole text to post at once and I needed to post through frustration.